Lulu Hypermarkets opens its 121st outlet in Dammam

Dammam - Retail major plans to invest SR1.5 billion in two years

Marching ahead with its aggressive expansion in the Saudi Arabian market, Middle East's retail major, Lulu Hypermarkets has opened its latest outlet in Dammam. It's the 6th in the kingdom and 121st in the GCC. The latest hypermarket was officially inaugurated by Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on Wednesday. The occasion was graced by Engineer Abdullah Al Ahamed, President of Dammam Municipality and several high ranking officials from various government departments, representatives from local business community and prominent citizens.
Speaking at the inauguration, Lulu Group's chairman Yusuffali MA announced the proposed launch of four more hypermarkets this year, two in Jeddah and one each in Hail and Hofuf.
"In 2017 we will launch six more in the kingdom including in the holy cities of Makkah and Madina," added Yusuffali.
The new hypermarket, located at Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Road in Dammam provides a one-stop shopping destination for the growing city dwellers, which include a growing community of nationals and expatriates. The hypermarket also houses Sparkys family entertainment, food court consisting of authentic Arabic fine dining, Arabic and Filipino cuisine, and coffee shops, pharmacy from ATM and money exchange. Revealing his investment plans, Yusuff Ali said: "We have already invested more than SR800 million till now and intend to further invest SR700 million by the end of 2017, taking our total investment to more than SR1.5 billion in the kingdom."
"We are very confident that this great country will further prosper under the visionary leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz; Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz; and Deputy Crown Prince, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.
"The support and love extended by the rulers gives us further impetus to serve the growing economy of this country. Lulu is committed to do its bit to help the kingdom by opening more outlets, thereby generating employment opportunities to talented Saudis. The opening of the hypermarket in Dammam underscores our increasing presence in the region and our commitment to serve one of the growing and important markets in Saudi Arabia."
"We have always believed that it's our duty to nurture the local talent and currently there are more than 1,500 Saudis who work with us and our goal is to provide employment to 5,000 Saudi nationals by the end of 2017," said Yusuffali. Currently Lulu has more than 30 per cent Saudis in their workforce and provides best quality training to absorb them in various managerial and specialised sections.